Chapter 7

Outwitting the Charmer

It had been a week since Pandorium, but the club was the furthest thing from Lizzy's mind. She was now fervently scribbling down her notes as Mr. Lewis lectured. AP US History was a difficult class. And she was one of the only juniors. She took it to try and have a class with Jane. But even tough Jane was put in a different class, Lizzy still loved it. She had always been great at history and literature, but math not so much. It wasn't that she was bad at Math. She was actually in Honors. Math just required Lizzy to work so much more than History and Literature.

Mr. Lewis suddenly turned to go to the door. The entire class let out a breath of relief. "What do you mean you're transferring into my class?"exclaimed an exasperated Mr. Lewis. This exclamation of course had the entire class leaning in to listen what was being said. All they could hear was a muffled response.

"I don't care how smart you are. It's going to be difficult to catch up. And I don't allow extra credit."

The class was even more intrigued by this mystery student. No one had ever tried to transfer into AP class so late in the semester.

"Oh, you were taking the class at your old school,"said Mr. Lewis sarcastically. "Well, that doesn't make one damn bit of a difference, Mr. Darcy."

There were seven high hives, three "Yeah, Man!"s, eight audible swoons, and one inaudible groan. Lizzy was very upset by this new addition and she hoped that Mr. Lewis wouldn't let Rick Darcy in. But then that wouldn't make this tory nearly as interesting.

"Oh! I had no idea! Of course you can come in."

Rick walked in showing off his dashing smile. Behind Lizzy, three girls swooned.

"I can't believe you had my old professor at your school in the city! I know you were in excellant hands. You'll be able to catch up with ease"

"He was an excellent teacher. I'm very disappointed to be unable to finish off the semester with him. But when I told him I was coming here, He told me that I wouldn't be missing a thing. That you were one of his best students."

Mr. Lewis puffed his chest out proudly. "He has always been one of my favorite teachers. Let's see, you sill need a book and a desk. Ah, you may take the empty seat next to Miss Bennet. And I shall get you that book."

Liza couldn't believe it. Not only had Rick made Mr. Lewis adore him in 0.3 seconds (Which was nearly impossible. It had taken a month before he adored Lizzy.), but he also was sitting right next to her. It was bad enough having him in the same classroom with those idiotic girls swooning every five seconds. But now she had to sit next to him. Which meant they would be project partners. She had been jumping around from group to group. But now she was stuck with a self-righteous, pig headed, bastard for a partner. Swonderful.

Rick couldn't believe his luck. He had his chance to talk to Lizzy Bennet. This was exactly what he needed to figure out who the Bennet sisters really were. Rick flashed his brightest smile as he sat down next to Lizzy. But she didn't look up from her notes. This puzzled Rick. Every other girl in the class was presently staring at him. Was she really that self-absorbed not to notice the god that walked among them? Finally she looked up and he tried to catch her eyes.

"What is he doing?" Lizzy hissed inwardly. "Is he trying to get me in trouble?"

"Hey!" said Rick. "Hey, Elizabeth Bennet!"

"Yes. Um... sorry what's your name?"said Lizzy with an I'm-pretending-to-be-nice-to-you-because-if-I-don't-the-entire-female-population-of-Riverville-high-will-kill-me smile. Rick ,oblivious to this hidden message of a smile, flashed yet another debonaire grin. He put his hand out to shake Liza's, "Rick Darcy. Do you mind if I borrow your notes from today?"

"Ehhhh"

"Ehhhh?"

Lizzy still hadn't taken Rick's hand to shake it. She smirked with a sudden dark inspiration and said, "You look awfully familiar, but I can't figure out where I have seen you."

"Well, I was at Pandorium last weekend. I might have seen you there"

"No, that can't be it. We must have gone on different nights. I went on Friday night and I was on the dance floor nearly all night. I would have seen you." Lizzy's eyes danced devilishly.

"OH, I was there Friday night. I promise." Rick said using his you-know-you-trust-me smile.

"Well, I guess you don't dance then?"

"No, I do. Just not when I don't know anyone. Which I didn't."

"Yes, and I suppose you can't meet anyone at a club. Here are the notes." Lizzy turned and waited for Mr. Lewis to begin teaching. Rick just stared forward trying to piece together what had just occurred. Never had anyone gotten the best of him like that. He would fix this immediately.

"Now why can tell why Jackson's majority rule, his so called people's republic, was so dangerous to Americans?"

Rick saw his opportunity. It was clear that in order to get Lizzy Bennet to trust him he was going to have to prove that he was more than a rich pretty boy.

"You're quite brave Mr. Darcy. Let's see how well my professor taught you. Or rather how well you paid attention."

"Well, first of all Jackson abused the system by twisting the publics demands to suit his own needs. This pretty much gave him complete power to do what he wanted. Second, the minority wasn't represented. And if the minority isn't represented then the U.S. loses what makes it different from other countries."All the girls in the room melted immediately. Well almost all the girls.

"Very good Mr. Darcy!" beamed Mr. Lewis.

"How about that Bennet?"thought Darcy.

"Ah, something to add, Miss Bennet?" said Mr. Lewis. Rick looked up, shocked.

"While I agree with Mr. Darcy. I have to say that the real reason why a loss of minority representation is so negative is because of mobocracy. If one group has complete control, then the minority can be completely forgotten. Which puts our country at a disadvantage."

"Very good, Miss Bennet. I know I will be getting a quality essay from the two of you. That is your assignment, class. You will write an essay on President Jackson and his 'for the people' campaign. You may have the rest of the class periods to work on it."

Liza had a feeling she would be groaning inwardly quite a bit in this class."Go figure. Darcy would ruin my favorite class."

"PERFECT! A chance to figure out the Bennets." thought Rick triumphantly.

The two sat in silence for a minute or so. Lizzy because she was so annoyed with her situation. Rick because he had no idea how to begin a conversation with someone like Lizzy Bennet. It was obvious she didn't take to being charmed. He was going to have to impress her intellectually. He probably wouldn't ever admit it, but he was looking forward to the challenge. He was so use to just being able to get what he wanted because of who he was, that it was exciting to have to challenge himself.

Lizzy just wanted to get over this mess of a partnership. She didn't want to spend time with someone who could manipulate people the way Rick Darcy did. She couldn't stand people like Rick Darcy and the sooner he was out of her life the better. just until the end of a semester, that's all and then she was free. It was hard to believe they were just about finished with the 1st quarter. She could last one more quarter. Just one more.

Finally Lizzy broke the silence, "So, I figure we can do the outline now and write the essay tommorrowin class. I'll type it up and that will be it."

"Well, there's a problem, I'm going to be gone tomorrow." Rick smirked.

"What! You can't afford to miss another day. You'll be screwed!"said Lizzy. "And so will I,"she thought to herself.

"Um, you won't be here either."

"What?"

"Tomorrow is Saturaday."

"Oh." Lizzy was inwardly cursing. Not only had she looked stupid, but she had lost control of the conversation.

"But we can still work on it tomorrow."

"Yeah alright. Um, how do you want to get in contact?"Lizzy was desperately hoping he wouldn't say phone. Her hopes were answered ad Rick said, "Oh, I sent you a Facespace over the weekend." Lizzy thought she might have seen Rick blush slightly. Well, it was a very masculine blush, but a blush none-the-less. So, she decided it was time to grab control of the conversation once more.

"Wow, you must have some insight on the future. If you knew you were going to have to contact me."

Rick blushed a tad more. He was glad that Lizzy Bennet wasn't someone he would generally associate with because otherwise he might be in trouble. The worst kind of trouble. He might actually start liking Lizzy Bennet. Good thing that would never happen.